


Salt the Earth

by ladyjax



Category: Leverage
Genre: AU, Ghosts, Multi, OT3, Polyamory, bad real estate deal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-22
Updated: 2021-01-22
Packaged: 2021-03-13 23:01:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,605
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28911264
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ladyjax/pseuds/ladyjax
Summary: A chance to expand their brewery may come at a cost.
Relationships: Alec Hardison/Parker/Eliot Spencer
Comments: 2
Kudos: 21
Collections: 2020 Leverage Secret Santa Exchange





	Salt the Earth

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SleepySsnail](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SleepySsnail/gifts).



> I ended up scrapping my original idea and rolling with this one. Not exactly ghost hunting. More like ghost avoidance. Enjoy!

The warehouse was cavernous, what with the tanks and bottling machinery all around them. Eliot, Alec, and Parker followed behind the perfectly coiffed real estate agent who was doing her level best to sell this place to them. 

"And over here is the nice wide open space that would be perfect for a large party or gathering should you choose to rent it out," the agent said. Shelly Brewster had come highly recommended by one of their brewery contacts when word had gotten around that the trio was considering expanding their operations. She was lithe, blonde and could walk in a pair of Louboutin's like she was born in them and up until this particular brewery tour, she'd been fairly on the level with the pros and cons of each place they had looked at. Parker leaned over to whisper to Alec, "Something's up. She doesn't smell nice right now."

Alec's eyebrows shot up as he considered Parker's habit of smelling certain people. Maggie was still top of the list of nice smelling blonde ladies and that counted for a lot in Parker's book. "When did you get close enough for that?" he asked softly. He looked towards Eliot who was a few steps behind Shelly, scribbling things down in a note book so he could ask question about them later. Alec turned his attention back to Parker. "Well?"

She grabbed his hand and pulled him behind a tank so that they were out of sight of the other two. "You know when we were outside, she was pretty friendly?"

Alec nodded. "Shelly is pretty much the poster girl for friendly. She's trying to get us to buy a multi-million dollar property. Of course she's gonna turn on the charm," he said reasonably. Parker rolled her eyes and continued.

"I passed by her when we came into this area," she pointed at the tanks, "and she smelled, I dunno, kind of sour."

"Could be BO...ow!" Alec yelped when Parker smacked him on the arm. "Would you chill, woman?"

Parker crept forward so she could peer around the tank then looked back at Alec. "She's hiding something," she hissed. "Whatever it is, it's making her push a little too much."

Alec could tell that Parker was really serious. She rarely deployed the smell test, which Alec affectionately called her "Smell-O-Vision", mostly because smells were generally a matter of personal Parker preference. He and Eliot just rolled with it. 

"Say she's trying for the hard sell, why do you think it is?" he asked. Parker huffed a little and stuffed her hands in her pockets.

"I don't know, but we should probably let Eliot know."

"Not relishing that little conversation," Alec muttered under his breath before grabbing Parker's hand and pulling her along with him. "Alright, let's catch up and ask Eliot if he'd noticed anything."

The pair wound their way around the remaining bottling equipment and through a door that led to the attached restaurant. In contrast to the cold warehouse, the restaurant space was warm and welcoming with a polished copper top mahogany bar in pride of place in the middle of the room. Whomever the last owners had been it was obvious that they put a lot of care into the restaurant. It was set up in such a way that tables and chairs could easily be configured to accommodate singles as well as groups and if the large TV monitors and sports banners on the wall were any indication, this had once been a very popular place. 

"Hey, we're back here," Eliot called out. Alec and Parker followed the sound of his voice and found themselves in a somewhat dingy kitchen. "Well, this is special," Alec said slowly. The kitchen looked as though the staff had dropped everything and just left. He glanced over at Eliot and by the tense set of his partner's shoulders, he could tell that went beyond what even he could tolerate. 

Shelly must have noticed the shift in Eliot's demeanor because she kicked up the charm another notch. "Obviously, you would come in and gut this space and turn it into exactly what you would need. Can't you just see it?"

"What I can see is that this place doesn't just need to be gutted," Eliot growled, "it probably needs an exorcism." Alec nodded and added, "That probably wouldn't be a bad idea."

"Who'd just leave it like this?" Parker suddenly asked. She stalked forward and poked her finger into Shelly's be-ruffled chest. "What are you hiding?"

"Hiding?" Shelly gave a tight laugh. "Why, I'm not hiding anything." Her eyes grew comically large when Parker leaned in, and ran her nose over her hair. She wrinkled her nose then squinted hard at the agent.

"Liar."

"Parker."

She turned to see Eliot looking at her, with Alec standing by his side. "Let's have a sit down outside," Eliot said. He looked around the kitchen and sighed. "This offends me."

The small group trouped back out into the restaurant and took seats at a four top. Shelly looked at the trio nervously, running a hand over her hair before twitching her blouse just so. 

Eliot began, "Would you like to tell us exactly why you're pushing this place so hard? We've looked at at least three other properties and you were on the up and up on each one of them. No hard sell. Why here?"

Shelly placed her perfectly manicured hands on tabletop and drummed her fingers lightly. "I've had this place in my portfolio for a long time. I inherited it from another agent who left town a few years ago. There's been at least two other breweries in here and none of them have lasted more than four years."

Alec held up a hand. "Wait a sec, Iron Tree Brewing is legendary. They were one of the first craft breweries in Portland." 

"I'm not even going to ask how you know that," Eliot said.

"I did a lot of research before I bought our current place," Alec replied with a shrug. "I wanted to make sure we were going to have a shot at being successful."

Shelly gave a weak smile. "To be honest, it's why I like have you three as clients. And you're right, Mr. Hardison. Iron Tree is legendary. It lasted for fifteen years before the original owners decided to step away from the business. They sold it to a group of employees and at first it looked as though they'd make it."

"What happened?" Eliot asked, concern marring his brow. "Most places make it to the five year mark and either go on or shut down. Something about the food, the beer?"

"There was some talk about a fall out between the former employees, accusations about the lack of quality control," Shelly shrugged. "In any case, they broke up and another group bought them out. They shut down the brewery so they could have the tanks checked out but kept the restaurant open. Rather than put all the tanks back into production, they concentrated on smaller batches and the food. It worked for a while and then the same thing as the first group: everything just fell apart."

"Why did the second group bail?" Parker asked. She leaned forward in her chair, her eyes fixed on the other woman. "No lying."

Shelly blew out a breath. "The cooks swore that weird things were happening in the kitchen."

That caught Eliot's attention. "Like what?"

"Gas burners left on, spoilage in the walk in when the food was fresh. Weird little things that made the staff jumpy. Front of the house picked up on it and eventually, the customers." Shelly looked at the trio. "It's been hell trying to unload this place."

Eliot wrapped his knuckles on the table and stood up. "And I'm afraid we're not going to be the ones to take it off your hands." Alec and Parker looked at each other and scrambled to their feet. "Call us when you have another place for us to look at. In the meantime, I think you need to look into having this place torn down."

Shelly got up, gathered her portfolio and nodded. "I've had more than a few people tell me that." She shook hands with the trio and added, "I hope this won't affect our working relationship."

Eliot smiled tightly. "No, but let's let everything cool off for a bit. You know where to find us."

Once they were back outside and Shelly had driven off, Alec said, "Kitchen spooked you."

"Damn straight," Eliot said vehemently. He gazed at the closed door of the restaurant then the rest of the warehouse. In the fading light, the shadows stretched and settled. "Whatever went on in there was enough to drive the cooks out. Front of the house doesn't always notice things but the cooks do. Could be nothing to most people but you don't here anyone talk about this place except in the past tense. I wouldn't walk back in there without a little spiritual back up."

"And that's our cue to leave," Alec intoned. He looked at Parker who was also looking at the building, her expression thoughtful. "Babe?"

"Coming." She slipped into the back seat of the car and turned to look back as they drove away. When one of the shadows flickered just so, she shuddered. Reaching between her men, she placed her hand on Eliot's forearm and gave it a squeeze, the tremor in her fingers barely noticeable.

"Parker? You okay, darlin'?"

She gave a little shake of her head and whispered, "Don't look back. Just drive."


End file.
